Roof collapse kills mom, baby
Family anguish at dream home horror
YESTERDAY, neighbourhood children in St Wendolins, near Pinetown, played on the shattered roof tiles that lay heaped in the front yard of the Chili family home.
They seemed oblivious to the commotion around them.
However, in the middle of the night, the very same roof tiles came crashing down, killing their aunt, Mpume Chili, and her toddler daughter, Sbahle.
The work on the “dream home” their granny, Pinky, had been urging her children to build for so many years, ground to a halt.
It was a place where all the family get-togethers were held, and memories were made.
Mpume’s sister, Dudu, who had driven through the night from Kokstad to be with the family, said: “My mom, she just can’t speak at the moment, she’s not doing well. She blames herself for what happened, for wanting the house and wanting a higher roof.
“She told us that Mpume and her three children had been sleeping in the front room that night.
“Our brother was also sleeping there.
“Suddenly, there was a creaking of wood, and then a scream. The roof came down and then there was just silence.
“I can’t even answer how we are doing.”
Mpume, 27, who worked as a cashier at Shoprite in Chatsworth, and her two-and-ahalf year-old daughter Sbahle, were killed. Mpume’s two other sons, aged 8 and 4, escaped with minor injuries.
“Our brother does not want to speak, he is inside the house, he is not saying anything, that’s how traumatised he is.
“I think we all need counselling,” said Dudu, adding that her brother worked through the night, shovelling the tiles, which had dropped out into the yard. Dudu said the family had been living in the home for many years, and was building it according to plans their mother, a domestic worker, got from her employer.
“It was my mom’s dream, she even told her employer; ‘one day I will have a house like yours’, and they gave her their building plans.
“But the height of the ceiling was too low, my one brother’s head would’ve touched the ceiling if he tried to screw in a light bulb, and so we had builders come in to make it higher,” said Dudu.
All the children were contributing financially to the building of the house.
Dudu said her sister, Mpume, was “the life of the party”.
“She loved the spotlight, at any family get together, she was always so bubbly and full of life. If you go to Shoprite, anyone will tell you who Mpume was, she was the loudest cashier,” said Dudu.
The family is now trying to put money together to pay for the funeral of the mother and daughter. The date has not yet been confirmed.